My Son Neko (Ok He is a Dog)

Ok, so I have this dog, who in reality is a dog, but to me he is like my son. He is an amazing dog. His name is Neko, which in Japanese means Cat. Neko is quite a dog, infact a really wonderful dog. For the first two years of his life though, I thought only one of us would survive.

I was in the middle of a divorce.

No, don't be sorry to hear that, the divorce was the "walk in the park", it was the 22 year marriage that was the hard part.

During the split, our family dog, Tango, went into renal failure, and had to be put down.

My daughter pleaded, with sad "puppy dog" eyes to get her another little lovable ball of fur.

"Yes, Mommy, I'll take care of the puppy. Feed it, sure. Pick up poop, of course, every day. Oh mommy, puleeeeeez.."

Well, as you can guess, Mommy took her to the humane society to look at doggies.

My daughter fell in love with this little, but very sturdy, big pawed puppy.

The volunteer encouraged us to spend some time in a play area with the puppy, and said that he was a fine dog. She said he is a true pleasure, and that he would surely get no bigger than 30 "or so" pounds.

Little puppy came home with us.

This "pleasure of a puppy" QUICKLY earned the name of Beast from Hell. He was dominant and constantly was misbehaving, including but not limited to, his daily dump in the dining room.

One day I came home to a lovely, vaguely familiar, smell, and soon discovered that scent was Kaluah, and that the beast got into the bottle (don't ask me how), drained it, and was sloppy drunk.

I drug the dog, (by the way he weighed about 55 pounds by then) to the vet where they quickly induced him to barf up my expensive Kaluah. The vet was notating information about Neko. I mentioned he was a dominant dog. She smiled and told me that she could show me how to break him of that. The kind vet proceeded to lay on my dog and restrict him from moving. Neko was not pleased. She instructed me that you continue to lay on the dog until his breathing settles, hence showing he has given up, and you are now dominant over him.

She emphasized that you must not get off the dog till his breathing is normal. Ok, this vet laid on my dog for 40 freakin minutes. Yep, it took forty minutes for his breathing to settle. She got off of him, straightened her lab coat and stated that he is a bit of a handful.

I went to the front desk and pulled out my checkbook to pay for services rendered. The vet technician said that there was no charge. I looked at her stunned and she said the vet has never ever seen such a stubborn dog, and the visit was "on her".

Fast forward two years:

Neko now weighs 110 pounds.

I married a real man who loves me unconditionally , BUT, will not put up with a bad ass dominant dog.

Dear Beast from Hell's dominant days were numbered.

On the day that Neko took it upon himself to drag a HUMONGOUS plate of our dinner spaghetti and meatballs to the floor and dine solo, he learned to fear the wrath of Daddy Rick. I still to this day am not fully aware of how this miracle occurred, but, it was simultaneous with Neko's bad deed of hogging up our spaghetti and meatball dinner without being invited.

I kid you not, this dog nearly instantly transformed into the most wonderful, loyal, loving, tender dog you could ever dream of having in your family.

Five Years from the Joyous day our Neko became the dog we love today:

Neko is sleeping quietly with us in the living room now . I love this little guy so very much. He is a continual sense of joy for both my husband and I.

Well, he isn't really a little guy. His last weigh in was at 124 pounds. He is on a diet. He is not so happy about the diet, but, we have noticed he is a bit more spry since losing about 10 pounds. We want him to live a long healthy life and have cleaned up his dietary indulgences.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that my daughter did pick up one pile of poop.